Free Dream Storm Sea by A.E. Marling Page A

of an unequal level of commitment, fennec.”
    The fox squeaked a bark. Beyond his chatter, someone called out from the shadows.
    “Lady of Gems, paint your eyes with the sign of your goddess.”
    Hiresha considered herself the Lady of Gems, even if she currently possessed only the singular, and she thought she recognized the woman’s voice. Glancing about, she saw many people with kohl paint darkening their eyes. Designs of scorpion tails or ostrich plumes spread over their cheeks and temples to declare homage to a god, after the fashion of the empire’s capital. Hiresha never saw who had shouted, and she began to think it had only been a merchant calling out to Arbiter Cosima.
    Dozing, Hiresha saw the truth.
    Her dream was a place of dark rock and bright jewels, of lotus-tiled floor and domed ceiling. Its air had the crystalline pureness of never having been breathed before. Here, nothing had weight unless Hiresha willed it. Tourmalines of yellow and garnets of green bobbed through the air overhead, while mirrors coasted along the walls. In the laboratory that Hiresha had built in her mind, every magic bauble stood in its proper place on the shelves. She wore her preferred dress of amethyst spirals. Everything was as it should be.

    A mirror revealed the recent memory of a woman standing in an alcove. Her eyes looked similar in shape to Naroh and Sagai’s, but Emesea was stockier, her face rounder, and she wore green eye shadow of crushed malachite.
    “I can’t be surprised Emesea would smear a poisonous gemstone around her eyes,” Hiresha said to herself. “She does have an affinity for toxins, such as Inannis.”
    In the mirror, Emesea called out to the “Lady of Gems.” Then she hid herself under a shawl and walked away.
    The next voice that spoke had a similar timbre to Hiresha’s but a more youthful melody to its speech. “She scares us more than a cradle full of vipers.”
    The words had come from high in the dome. Hiresha did not need to look up to know that Intuition sat atop the laboratory, dangling her legs through the skylight.
    “Inannis’s accomplice.” Hiresha nodded to the mirror with Emesea. “But no sign of Fos.”
    “Where could he be?” Intuition floated down from the skylight. Her face was much like Hiresha’s, though without any worry lines. She clapped her yellow gloves against a mirror to peer into the memory.
    “Perhaps they have him hidden in a city cellar. Fos is rather conspicuous,” Hiresha said. “Emesea yelled that she wants me to paint my eyes, perhaps to better disguise me.”
    “Sounds more fun than our plan.”
    Hiresha touched her lips and Attracted the mystic topaz up her throat and into her hand. Her magic then Burdened the unsavory liquids off the jewel. Droplets fell onto a dais below her levitating slippers.
    Intuition took a few hesitant steps toward Hiresha and grasped her skirt. “We aren’t really leaving Fos and the fennec behind, are we?”
    “I have but one easy way forward, and that’s to accept my imprisonment. Anything else will be an ordeal.”
    An image of Spellsword Fos appeared in a mirror, looking as she had often seen him, his obelisk of a sword secure on his back and his hands occupied rubbing the fennec’s furry belly. Her memory of Fos’s laugh flooded her with warmth.
    She said, “I will return for them, once I have more gems.”
    “We’d give up all the gems for them.” Intuition placed her hands over her heart. “We love them so much.”
    “No, I’m merely used to their company and concerned for their wellbeing.”
    Hiresha closed her eyes on the dream and opened them on Jaraah.
    Biting her lip until the pain brought some measure of wakefulness, Hiresha saw a curious sight. A warrior in red robes permitted a beggar girl to lean against him. Her lamed foot bent at a wince-worthy angle as they walked. Her paleness contrasted with the warrior’s ebony skin. She met Hiresha’s eye.
    The enchantress focused beyond the street